Abyss of Birds
by Heliotropic
Summary: Yaoi No one really considered the consequences of someone as emotional as Naruto learning Kage Bushin. But they're about to, because he achieved what none could: Immortality. This story is free to a good home.
1. Prologue

**Abyss of Birds**

* * *

A Kage Bushin is a clone made of shadows given solidity by chakra. 

Chakra is charged by the emotions the user is feeling, which is why so many ninjas have more success with jutsu when using them in life or death situations. Bushin, especially solid Bushin, are defined by the emotions used to make them.

Solid Bushin are used to deliver messages, as diversions, as something to take a blow for the caster. Each solid Bushin contains a tiny piece of the caster's soul. When a Bushin is destroyed or dismissed, that piece of soul returns to the caster with no harm done.

Usually, this would not be a problem.

But Naruto uses Kage Bushin _all the time_. In sparring, cleaning, shopping, and even just when he wants someone to talk to. And sometimes not all of them are killed in a fight. What this means is that the emotion he is feeling when he makes a Bushin is often not the same as when he dissolves one.

And that means that those pieces doesn't fit quite right anymore.

Instead of rejoining, they drift in the very core of his being, orbiting around his soul, until they collide with other such lost shards and combine. And a soul heals, just like everything else.

For almost three years, Naruto has used Kage Bushin on a daily basis. For almost two years, there has been more than one soul inside his body. For almost a year, Naruto has been aware of the 'other' Narutos, now fully developed souls. And today, he is going to free them.

Because they have made a deal. The extra souls will be contained elsewhere. In stones, trees, jewelry, it doesn't matter. When he- the original -died, his soul would go free. But that wouldn't matter, because all the other Narutos were as strongly bound to this body as he was. As soon as a soul left, another would take its place, and the amount of energy it would build up in racing to the empty body would be more than enough to heal the wound that killed him. And he could continue fighting.

They are all the same person, after all.

* * *

Naruto sat back, panting, and stared at the glittering stones in his lap. Originally the twelve little pebbles had been no better than gravel, now they were all clear and bright, in slightly different shades of purple-blue. 

Each one held a soul

He had been worried, at first, that they would only have his memories up to the point when he pushed them out of his –no, their- body. A few simple tests showed that, not only did they receive his knowledge; they could transmit their knowledge to him.

So, he made the stones. He would give one to each of his precious people. The remaining souls inside him would be divided into two groups. The first would go into completely unremarkable object and be hidden, and the second group would power a group of semi-permanent Kage Bushins.

And the second group would learn. He would change their appearance, send a few off to travel, a few to stay in Konoha under various senseis, and all of them would transmit the things they learned to each other.

And the last soul, the original soul, would stay in their body to learn things the others couldn't. Like how to control and use the Kyuubi's chakra.

And in a year or two, he would be ready.

* * *

I really shouldn't be starting another story when I already have one on the go, but oh well. This one will be darker than Triad. And contain a lot more blood and gore. I'll update it whenever I get frustrated with Triad. _–Heliotropic _


	2. Dove

* * *

One: Dove

* * *

Naruto sighed, stretching, and threw the covers off the bed. He walked slowly to the bathroom, turned on the tap and stuck his head under the freezing water.

Spluttering at the sudden cold, he sent the sensations to all the various Narutos linked in his mind. Listening to them splutter much the same way he had, Naruto the original gave a satisfied grin. If he had to suffer, so did the others.

_What was that for?! _The thought-shout came blistering down their connections from all directions.

_We decided to get up at dawn. The alarm only wakes me up. Cold water wakes us up fastest. _He listened to their disgruntled muttering, and couldn't resist sending an image of himself sticking out his tongue. In revenge, he was bombarded by images of anything from a garbage heap to speculation about Kakashi-sensei's unmasked face.

Grinning once again, Naruto settled into a meditating position, and opened his mind. _Right. Two through seven, report. _Memories and conversations, knowledge and techniques and physical changes flooded his mind and were stored in his memory banks and muscles. Six new techniques, three of wind and two of water. A new taijutsu style. Some rather revealing conversation.

Not bad for three day's work.

_Good. Eight, Nine, how are things progressing? _Eight and Nine were in charge of finding a way around the one weakness in his new soul-split technique. All his souls that he had given bushin bodies were taking chakra from his system, and that weakened all of them significantly.

_We found a way around it, One. What we've got to do is have you give us a big chunk of our collective chakra, and start it circulating really quickly. It should form its own replenishing system within about ten minutes, twenty if we want to be strong as our original body. _Naruto felt Eight nod at Nine's explanation, and then send a more comprehensive understanding to him in a memory-burst.

_Good. We'll take care of that once all the reports are in, okay? _He felt them send their agreement, and turned his attention from the bushin group (two through nine) to his hidden group.

_Right, you guys settled in? No weirdness from possessing a toaster, Twelve? _The group send a general affirmative, and Twelve sent him a vision of some toast burnt with spiraling patterns.

Naruto snickered, and felt his amusement rebound along all the links, as the collective Narutos snickered along with him. _Having fun, Twelve?_

Again, agreement was sent along the link, and Naruto turned his attention to the last group, the stones_. Any luck making a shield or other protection-type things?_ he asked them.

Another wordless communication, this time in the form of an excited burst of information from all twelve stone-souls. As he registered the new knowledge in his mind, Naruto grinned. His stone souls had figured out how to tap earth chakra to power themselves, and could now build very powerful shields around both themselves and the person they were with. Since it didn't drain either Naruto or the bearer of the stone, it could be held for an indefinite amount of time. In fact, so far they had each held a large shield for three days with no sign that they would need to stop any time soon.

An excited burst of chatter filled his head as he and the other Narutos congratulated the stone-souls and talked about how they could use this new skill. _Will it carry over to the rest of us, you think_? asked one. _Can't tell 'till we try_, responded another.

_All right, settle down. Eight, Nine, team up with Two. You guys are in charge of exploring any abilities we can gain from this. If you get bored, find out what you can do with other elements. Everyone else, back to work. Stone group, I'm getting you set today, so your duties as protectors of our precious have begun._

There was some good-natured grumbling, but the Narutos did as they were told. As the one with the body, the original Naruto was the de-facto leader, and when he died, soul Two would take over the body and become leader in his place.

As the chatter in his mind faded and the others wandered off to start their days, Naruto stretched and glanced at the clock. 7:34, time for breakfast. He gulped down an instant ramen, brushed his teeth, and went to his dresser. All his orange jumpsuits were dirty, covered in blood and dirt form a few sparring matches between him and the bushins to help test some new skills.

He opened the drawer and grabbed the first shirt he found, a blue sleeveless one. That on, he grabbed some black pants, put those and his sandals on, and went to find his other jacket. The light blue jacket had been a present from Iruka-sensei on his last birthday, and he liked it. It just looked weird with his usual orange.

Fed, clothed, and reasonably awake, Naruto ran to meet his teammates at the bridge.

* * *

By the time his teammates were in sight, Naruto's mood had plummeted.

All the way there, villagers had stares and whispered. This wasn't really unusual, but for some reason it was really getting on his nerves lately. To cap it, Naruto was almost certain that today they were going to have another group training thingy so Kakashi-sensei could feel like he was training all of his team and not just Sasuke.

Luckily for Naruto, he had told the Hokage that he had made bushin that could learn for him, so while he did whatever stupid activity his sensei had come up with this time, a soul-clone was reading in the library and another was practicing techniques.

So the day wasn't a complete loss.

Still…There stupid group things had no other effect than making the members of Team Seven hate eachother even more. Where once he had had a crush on Sakura, he now found her useless, shallow, and vaguely annoying. And Sasuke…Well Sasuke had gone from annoying to completely intolerable.

Naruto felt the vague and distracted agreement of his other souls, and sighed. He just had to keep in mind that the day would not be a loss. He was still getting things done. Besides, since Hokage-jiji knew that his bushin were learning at the same time he was, the old man had tested him and found him much more powerful. Soon he would be able to take missions without his teammates.

Well, it should be all right. At least he didn't get angry so easily anymore. With so many other presences to sooth him and make fun of people in his head, anger was much easier to push aside. Of course, when he got really angery now, the anger fed and grew from the other souls so quickly that his insides turned to ice and the rage crystallized into sharp, clear points before he could blow his top.

A fact that thoroughly freaked out his teammates.

Finally, Naruto persuaded his feet to move, and he joined the rest of Team Seven in waiting for their sensei.

Naruto offered no greeting to either of them, simply leaning on the bridge and staring at the water. Lately, he had begun avoiding and all contact with Sakura and Sasuke. Both of them tended to talk to him if he said anything on arrival, so he stayed quiet. Even if all Sasuke usually did was mutter 'hn' and pointedly ignore him, the other boy occasionally decided to sneer an insult his way.

The amount of effort he put into staying impassive was worth the increasingly perturbed expression the Uchiha wore every time it happened.

Collectively, the Narutos had deduced that if they wanted Hokage-jiji to send Naruto on missions that would gain him the experience he needed to hone the skills he was acquiring, he would have to act more mature. So he cut down on his yelling, didn't argue with Sasuke, and ignored Sakura as much as possible. He showed the Hokage that he was serious about being the best ninja he could possibly be.

Maybe his work would pay off soon, and he could go places without his stupid team…

He sighed, enjoying the quiet and ignoring the tension of the two behind him. The peace was shortlived, however, as Sasuke soon grew bored with waiting and began performing kata. This resulted in Saukra squealing admiration and encouragement to the smirking boy.

He sighed again, and dropped his head to rest on his arms. The movement caught Sasuke's attention, and he called to Naruto, "Oi, dobe! Falling asleep already? You might as well make yourself useful and spar with me, even if you don't put up much of a fight…"

A month ago, Naruto would be attacking the Uchiha in rage, now he just sighed and ignored the other boy. Instead, he focused on the four approaching chakra signatures his teammates hadn't noticed. One was that bun-haired girl, Shaniko Tenten, one was Kakashi-sensei, but he didn't know the other two.

Behind Naruto, Sasuke frowned at the lack of response, and snorted in annoyance. "What, afraid? Going to run home to mommy, dobe?"

Naruto froze, knowing full well that Sasuke was aware that he was an orphan. Several clone-souls soothed him, kept him from exploding. But Naruto was truly annoyed, so instead of greeting the owners of the chakra signatures, he turned to the other boy.

"I don't have the patience to pander to your massive ego today, you bastard, so be quiet and go bother someone else." Naruto snapped at him. He noted with satisfaction the spread of shock and anger over his teammates faces, and turned towards the forest.

"Is there any particular reason you four are lurking in the trees rather than greeting us?" His tone was mild, but annoyance showed in his face.

Sakura and Sasuke both jumped as the four ninja emerged into the clearing. He eyed them. As he had sensed, Tenten and Kakashi were there. The other two were…interesting.

The first was wearing an excited grin and a lot of spandex. Between that, the bushy eyebrows, and the bowl-cut, it took several seconds and the work of three soul-clones to keep him from laughing aloud.

Amusement visible in his eyes, Naruto examined the other one. Long black hair, white robes, and colourless eyes. That, coupled with the other's forcedly blank expression, told Naruto all he needed to know: a Hyuuga clansman.

"Ah, well…it seems you have a mission with these three today, Naruto." His sensei scratched the back of his head, honestly puzzled. Since when did Naruto get specifically requested for missions?

Naruto blinked, then nodded, completely unsurprised. Hokage-jiji had promised to send him on missions with other teams so he didn't judge all partner work from Team Seven.

"Alright then." He nodded goodbye to Sakura and the still fuming Sasuke, and addressed his partners for whatever mission the old man had decided on. " Are we going to the tower for a briefing, or do you already know what we're doing?"

"Tower." Said Tenten. He nodded, and joined the group as they walked away from Kakashi and his teammates. "So…our sensei decided we needed to experience a mission on our own to let our 'youthful energies' mature, but why are you here?"

He shrugged. "Insurance, I suppose. I can contact the village in seconds even when we're out of radio range, and an extra person never hurts. Hokage-jiji promised me a mission with people outside my team anyways, so I suppose I'm a good candidate to join you."

He paused. "Er…youthful energies?" The Hyuuga walking beside him clapped a hand over the spandex-clad boy's mouth, and twisted to face Naruto.

"You don't want to know. Trust me, you don't want to know. " Naruto snickered, glanced at the boy struggling in the Hyuuga's grip, and blinked.

Spandex… "Your jonin-sensei is _Maito Gai?! _No wonder! Alright, I won't ask again." Naruto shook his head. Who was crazy enough to let the Green Beast teach?

Tenten frowned. "How do you know Gai-sensei?"

"Eh…He taught me a bit of taijutsu about a month ago. Just as a basis for some jutsu creation I'm doing. He's…interesting." As one, Tenten and the Hyuuga snorted. Finally, the white-eyed boy leaned over and whispered something in his teammate's ear, then let go. The boy was visibly sulking, but he said nothing.

"Well. We are being very rude, I just realized. I am Hyuuga Neji, my teammates are Rock Lee and Shaniko Tenten." Naruto offered the other boy a smile.

"I am Uzumaki Naruto."

* * *

Eh…this was intended to be about four pages…it's conciderably longer. For those who haven't seen the change in the summary, this story is now officially boy/boy. Specifically, Neji/Naruto. That's YAOI. Sorry to those who don't like, but that's what I'm going to make it. _-Heliotropic_


	3. Hawk

Two: Hawk

* * *

The Hokage's eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled at the approaching group. Rock Lee, Shaniko Tenten, Hyuuga Neji, and Uzumaki Naruto. The young ones had so much potential…and a mission with people who were not Team Seven would be good for Naruto.

Lee wasn't shouting at the top of his lungs, spouting encouragement and his usual flowery sayings for once. The younger of the Beasts was strangely silent today, although it was obviously hard for him to restrain himself. Instead of speaking, he was dancing around the group, making wide gestures and generally attracting attention. Young Tenten had her face buried in her hands, clearly embarrassed by her teammate's exuberance, and Neji…Sarutobi blinked. Why, the boy was ignoring his teammates completely in favor of staring!

The old man followed the Hyuuga's eyes to the face of a clearly amused Naruto. The smile on his face was brilliant, his blue eyes had lit up, and it was clean he was already fond of Team Gai. A smile…that was one expression he had seen remarkably little of on Naruto's face for many months. And it was clear that one Hyuuga Neji found it just as radiant and cheering as he did.

The boy looked up from his study of the small blonde's face, feeling someone staring at him, and met Sarutobi's knowing gaze with the slightest flush to his cheeks. The old man's smile widened ever so slightly.

"Hello Team Gai, Naruto. Here for your mission?"

Surprised by the Hokage's familiarity with the blonde, they allowed Naruto to respond for them. "Yo, Hokage-jiji! And you should know, you're the one who specifically requested me. How far away from Fire country are we going?"

Sarutobi narrowed his eyes. "And what makes you think that you're leaving Fire country?"

Naruto smirked slightly. "You're using me, so that means that one: It's a long-distance or long-term mission, two: It involves someplace with strong wards, or three: It involves cutting communications for political reasons. You wouldn't send Team Gai on a long-term mission so close to the chunin exams since they're senior genins, wards need at least a team of chunin to break or enter safely, and someone with my…condition in a political situation is just asking for trouble. Therefore, long-distance mission."

The Hokage smiled slightly. "Very good. Though really, you should stop thinking of yourself in terms of communication and more in terms of your other abilities. Although your little quirk will be useful, what you will need most is that delightful little jutsu you've been working on…"

Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly, but he nodded, not questioning how the Hokage knew of his new abilities with earth chakra, gained from his stone-souls. Blinking as he remembered the stones in his pocket, Naruto listened with half his attention to the mission briefing as he dug around for a suitable stone. All the Narutos has ever-so-slightly different temperaments, and all the quickest to react to danger had gone into the stones. He chose the two with the top reflex reactions, and fingered them for a moment, waiting.

Their mission was a delight for Naruto: they were going to Wave country, more specifically the area around the Great Bridge, to exterminate several pockets of bandits. Most of them were the remains of Gatou's goons, but some were missing-nins looking to profit from the traffic across the bridge.

Naruto couldn't help the bright smile that broke across his face at the news.

The Hokage chuckled. "Yes, I thought you'd enjoy this one, Naruto. I expect that your knowledge of the land, along with your ability to manipulate it, will be a blessing to your Teammates." The old man blinked, and shifted his attention to the green-clad Lee.

"Speaking of teammates, Rock Lee will not be accompanying you, nor will Maito Gai. Your jonin sensei has decided that a mission without his presence to direct you would be a benefit to your development, and this gives him the perfect chance to give young Lee some one-on-one training. I believe he mentioned some 'finishing moves'?"

Lee clearly couldn't hold in his excitement any more, and yelled, "YOSH!"

"Hah! I win, Lee! Less than three hours, and you spoke. You owe me dinner when we get back!" Tenten's voice was triumphant, and the abruptly deflated Lee sighed and nodded.

"Hey, are we staying with the old man?"

Distracted from Lee's lost bet, they turned to the blond, and the Hokage chuckled again. "Tazuna will be the one to provide you hospitality once again, and I hear Inari is most eager to see you again. And I suspect that no one will notice should you stay an extra day to…recuperate…after the mission is over."

Naruto noticed the curious looks from the others, and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. The habit was a throwback to before his soul splintered, but it still appeared when he was particularly nervous. "Um…My first C-class mission was to Wave, to protect Tazuna the bridge builder. Turned A-class pretty quick, and we ended up fighting some high-class missing-nin. I made friends with the people we were staying with, Tazuna's family."

He turned back to the Hokage, and dropped the two stone-souls on his desk. As one the other nins started. The stones radiated a huge amount of power, yet none of them had noticed their presence. They were clear, a shimmering shade of purple-blue, set in silver with a loop at one end for a chain.

"Keep one of them on you, would you jiji? And give the other to Iruka-sensei when he goes on duty? They're…a little insurance I made." The Hokage sent Naruto a look telling him to elaborate, but the little blonde pretended to miss it. He sighed, knowing he'd get nothing out of Naruto in this mood.

"Very well. Hyuuga Neji, you are team leader for this mission. Please gather your things and leave as soon as possible. I will expect you back in no more than a week and a half." Dismissed, the three genins said goodbye to Lee and agreed to meet at the gate in a half-hour.

* * *

Exactly twenty minutes later, Naruto was standing at the west gate, waiting for his teammates to show up. Having expected a mission like this for a while, Naruto had most of his gear packed already, only needing to pick up some new rations and an extra coil of razor wire before he was ready. As a result, he was early.

Naruto sighed, and sat down with his back to the thick stone wall. Making himself comfortable, the blond decided to make use of the moment of peace, and started meditating. Within a minute, he had sunk deep into his own mind.

_Yo! Guys! Mission briefing, so pay attention!_

The mind-shout garnered immediate attention from all his other souls, and with no prompting needed; he compressed the memory and sent it down every open link. Seconds later, his mind was filled with excited chatter. Naruto tried to get their attention, but all the others had something to say and wanted it said _now_.

_QUIET!_

Silence reigned. As one, every Naruto turned their attention to the soul that had shouted. He was the oldest of the non-original souls, and the best planner of all of them. Naruto had inserted this particular soul into a many-faceted crystal, which now hung around his neck. The facets only served to reflect the soul's power and thoughts in on itself, and it had quickly become the most intelligent of the souls. The soul sighed.

_Now, this is how we'll do this. One question at a time, starting with the clones, then the stones, then the spies. No yelling, it'll get us nowhere._

The many Narutos grumbled, but were quick to quiet down. It took the Narutos much less time than expected to sort through the information they would need for the mission and decide how much of their skill they could afford to show in front of Team Gai. Ten minutes into the discussion, Naruto sensed Neji's chakra arrive.

He left the other souls to the discussion, and opened his eyes. Sure enough, there was Neji. The other boy was leaning against a tree opposite where Naruto was sitting, his eyes closed and head tilted back to soak up the bright sunshine. He looked…peaceful.

Naruto wondered about him. As soon as he had seen the boy, he had recognized those eyes: he was a Hyuuga clansman. Yet all the Hyuuga he had encountered, barring the terminally-shy Hinata, were aloof to the point of stand-offish, cold, and utterly obsessed with their clan's honor.

This boy, Hyuuga Neji, was different. Oh, he was quiet and impassive, but there was no sense of the arrogance that seemed hereditary in the Hyuuga clan. He was calmer, less likely to take offence to a perceived breach in protocol. So far, Naruto rather liked this enigmatic, atypical boy.

"Done scrutinizing me?"

Naruto jumped, but hid it well. Neji's left eye was open just a little bit, and a tiny, amused quirk to his lips told Naruto that the other boy had in no way been unaware of his stare. He flushed slightly, unable to help it. "Sorry. I was just thinking that – "

"Hey!" Tenten's yell interrupted him. "And here I was, thinking I'd be waiting on you guys! Well, so much for that. Shall we go?"

Naruto rose from his seat on the ground and Neji pushed away from the tree, nodding. "Yes. There is no point in waiting, so we might as well get going."

The small group of genins made their way out onto the road, and Konoha was soon out of sight.

* * *

They had made surprisingly good time. The sun was just setting when they found a small clearing in which to camp, nearly halfway to Wave. Quickly and efficiently, they built their camp: Tenten collected wood, Naruto built a small fire pit, and Neji set up their tents. Naruto frowned slightly at the dip he had lined with stones. "Oi, do you think we can risk a fire?"

Tenten smiled at him. "We're not in enemy territory yet, and the wood I collected won't give off much smoke, so we should be okay. Neji?"

The white-eyed boy shrugged. "We will be safe enough tonight, but after this, no fires. I have set up some traps around the perimeter of this clearing, so if you need to leave, do so now before I arm them."

Naruto stood as Tenten began to set up the kindling in his fire pit. "I'm going to catch us something to eat that isn't a ration bar. I won't be more than ten minutes."

He jumped into the trees and left the two teammates in the clearing.

Tenten waited two minutes after the blond had left, then turned to Neji. "So, what do you think?"

"He is…odd."

She blinked. "Odd? In what way? He seems like a nice guy to me, and a pretty competent ninja. He certainly isn't a burden."

Neji frowned slightly. "Not his personality, that's fine" he spoke absent-mindedly, "he has a nice smile. It's his chakra system that's strange. For one thing, he has two sets of coils. For another, there are there…strings of chakra, like chakra coils without tenketsu, that stretch from him back towards Konoha."

"It's probably just some kind of bloodline ability or something." Tenten responded dismissively. Then, abruptly, she grinned. "_He has a nice smile_, Neji? Some thing you want to tell me?"

The boy reddened slightly, glaring at her, but Naruto's return stopped him from responding.

"I caught us a rabbit, figured we wouldn't want to be carrying around extra food."

Tenten grinned happily, she loved rabbit! "Thanks, Naruto! I'll get it roasting now, and it'll be ready in about an hour."

Neji grunted, scowling at the ground. "I'm going to arm the traps." His voice was curt.

Naruto sent him a slightly puzzled look at this show of bad temper, and Neji's scowl melted. It wasn't Naruto's fault that Tenten was being stupid, and it was wrong of him to take it out on the other boy. He sent the blond an apologetic look, and was immediately rewarded with a small smile.

He went to arm the traps in a much better mood.

* * *

Later that night, after Tenten had gone to sleep, the two boys were still up, sitting together by the fire. The quiet stretched between them, not uncomfortable, but strangely expectant, waiting.

It was Naruto who broke the silence with a soft sigh. "It's weird, not traveling with Team Seven. Quieter, for one thing." Turning slightly, he grinned at Neji. "You guys have completely spoiled me, you know. Actually working with competent ninjas!"

"I take it your team is less than cooperative?"

'Hah! Sakura is a fangirl with good chakra control as her only skill, and Sasuke's a self-absorbed bastard with an odd combination of superiority and inferiority complexes, Kakashi-sensei's terminally late, and between the three of them I'll be insane by my next birthday." Sighing, Naruto slid his forehead protector off, wiping away the sweat that had accumulated behind it. Then he began polishing it carefully.

He looked up at Neji, smiling. "Here, take off yours and I'll polish it too."

Neji's whole body went tense, and Naruto drew back in confusion. "Hey, it's okay, you don't have to."

The other boy relaxed minutely, but an uncomfortable silence settled over them. Neji lifted a hand, drawing his fingers gently over his forehead protector. He hesitated. The other boy would find out about his seal, his curse, eventually anyways. The branch house seal was an open secret in Konoha.

He curled long fingers around it and drew it off his head.

Staring straight ahead, Neji handed the forehead protector to Naruto and struggled to keep his face impassive as the firelight clearly showed the seal on his forehead. Abruptly, gentle fingers drew over the seal, and he nearly overbalanced. Naruto drew his hand back sharply. "Sorry."

Neji swallowed quietly. "It's fine. I was just caught off guard."

Though he still avoided looking directly at Naruto, he could feel the other boy's curious gaze on his forehead. For a long moment, there was silence, then Naruto voiced the inevitable question. "That seal…what is it?"

A swell of bitterness choked Neji and caught him off guard. "My curse, my trap, my _fate_." His voice was bitter, and he spat the last word as if it were a curse. "It's the seal of the Hyuuga branch house. It allows any member of the Main house the ability to cause any degree of pain, or even _kill_ me, with nothing but a thought. It is the fate of every member of the branch house to serve the main house, willing or not, until death."

Naruto winced, but his famous optimism shone through. "But it also gives you more freedom, right? Since you're branch house, no-one cares who you marry, or what you do for a living, or whatever."

Neji snorted. "As if someone like you would understand." He regretted the bitter words immediately, but Naruto had already gone still at his side, and he could practally feel the anger in the other boy.

"You think you're the only one who's suffered, Hyuuga? You think you're the only one who's been restricted, who can't do things because of someone else's choices?"

That made Neji angry too, made his usually even temper flare as Naruto prodded an emotional wound. "Of course not." His tone was infuriating, condescending.

"Really? 'Cause that's what it seems like. Seems like a toddler raging at the world because his favorite toy has been taken away." His voice low and hard, Naruto caught Neji's eyes and held them.

'What do _you_ know? How could you _possibly_ understand – "

Naruto's mind went blank with icy rage at the other boy's presumptions. "Let me tell you something, Hyuuga. You aren't cursed. You've got a seal that gives other people, honorable people, power over you. So what? Yeah, it isn't fair, but _life's_ not fair. Don't like it? Then change it, rather than moping around and blaming it on fate. Some of don't have that option. Some of us don't even have a chance when it comes to changing our situation." Naruto knew he was saying too much, but he didn't care. He forged on recklessly. "I never had a chance, Hyuuga, but I _won't_ be fate's whipping boy! You want to see a _real_ curse?"

Naruto stood, striping off his shirt to display the angry black spiral of the Kyuubi's seal. His voice rose, and he could feel Tenten wake and come out of her tent behind him. "_This _is a curse! This is _my_ fate! Ever heard the word jinchurikki?"

From the sudden paleness of his skin and the sudden gasp from Tenten, he guessed they had. All the anger drained out of him, leaving him drained and weary. "I'm the container of a demon, Hyuuga Neji. I'm not allowed to marry, or have kids. If I leave the village without express permission, I don't get a D-class mission as punishment, I get executed by the ANBU. Enjoy the freedom you have. Not all of us are so lucky."

He turned away from Neji away from Tenten, and crawled into his tent. "Wake me for third watch." He called, then burrowed into his blankets, leaving the other two alone with their thoughts.

* * *

Finally, chapter two. I know I said that updates would be sporadic at best, but this took much longer than I expected. Oh well. -Heliotropic 


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